Encounter Advice

[Andostre]

Hi, folks. I've recently split my five-player party. Two PCs and one NPC did the encounters for Melianse the Nixie and lumberjacks, Tyressia the Druid, and the Scythe tree. For the other three PCs, I ran a version of the popular Venture Capital fan addition in my campaign. While successful, it has gone on too long, I think. This is a play-by-post game, and while all of the players like to roleplay, one player has really gotten into it and I think that the other players are ready to move on to something more exciting. The same player has also expressed interest in roleplaying the founding of their first city, and I want to accommodate that.

I plan on starting the scene in the middle of a tent city where the settlers and resources from Brevoy have already started to arrive. The players have already worked out who most of their kingdom leaders are going to be, so I'm going to have all of those NPCs show up, plus a few others they've encountered, and one or two roleplay surprises.

However, as much as I love the roleplay, I feel that for pacing purposes, something exciting needs to happen, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a combat or exciting skill challenge that is appropriate. I'd rather not have some monster come tearing through the tent city and trampling a good portion of their citizens before they can do something about it, but at the same time, this is the first time they party is all together in a while, AND we are finally getting around to starting up their city. I don't want to pull them away, again. I'd love to have something happen where they can look like heroes and leaders in front of all of their brand new citizens.

If it helps with any suggestions, I do plan on having Mikmek the kobold come by and invite the PCs to the kobold lair to run the first scene of Hargulka's Monster Kingdom, soon afterwards.

Any ideas or inspiration is welcome.

[pennywit]

Anything involving fey; I think a slightly scaled-down version of the Fey Pranksters from Blood for Blood might be appropriate. Or, better yet, keep them scaled up, and let your players command their forces (such as they are) against the invisible fey menace. Also, run a search on my "Spring Feast" scenario. Even if you don't like the scenario itself, a lot of GMs on here suggested some great additions in the form of some truly disturbing fey creatures.

[Philip Knowsley]

Tent city sounds like a cool place to have a chase scene...could be
anything from an escaped bull, to a thief (or 2).

You could also keep playing up the bandit theme & have a bandit attack
be repsulsed, but then have fire be an issue...

Read ahead into the next book, find something/someone you want to
foreshadow & create an encounter around that. e.g. too late for where
you are in the story, but prior to meeting the kobolds you could have
had a different coloured tribe attack. Speaking of which, is it too late
to have a big attack by Mites? Low level threats to your PCs now, but a
good way to have them feel powerful early on...

[Andostre]

A chase scene where the party has to run through its panicked citizens amidst collapsing tents sounds perfect, really! Awesome idea! I'm thinking something starts a fire to many of the tents, and then tries to get away without being caught. Thanks, Philip!

And yeah, the mites have already been wiped out. Honestly, they were pretty annoying to the PCs rather than challenging. I'd rather give them a new threat to be concerned over instead of a recurring threat that will make them roll their eyes and sigh in frustration.

And pennywit, good advice, but that scene doesn't work for what I'm trying to achieve, I think. I want the focus to be on the PCs establishing their government (with some sort of physical challenge that they need to overcome in front of their citizens thrown in) instead of the focus being on some creepy guests. I'll definitely consider some of the fey creatures listed in that thread, though.

[pennywit]

Grigori the Bard is a really good choice for this, although he's more of a social threat than a physical threat. You also might consider Kundal and the Gyronna cultists -- both are good little threats for a burgeoning settlement.

[Andostre]

pennywit wrote:

Grigori the Bard is a really good choice for this, although he's more of a social threat than a physical threat.

I don't see Grigori as agreeing to cause property damage and potentially hurt people and still expect to be taken seriously as a demagogue later on. I'm looking forward to that event, so I don't want to make him less effective by using him now.

Quote:

You also might consider Kundal and the Gyronna cultists -- both are good little threats for a burgeoning settlement.

Kundal is more along the lines of what I had in mind, actually. A native inhabitant of the area who resists newcomers. Plus, he and his barbarian tribesman could probably enter the tent city without too much trouble. Not a bad thought!

Thy Gyronna cultists are a definite maybe. One of the people that my party met with during my Venture Capitalism stint was Malgorzata Niska with the Church of Gyronna. Essentially, they would contribute 5 BP if the party's nation protected the open operation and worship of the Church of Gyronna. Not special privilege, but the same rights as any other church. I'm still planning on having the event where Malgorzata starts a cult in their city, and I don't want to tip off that betrayal just yet... but it's only a betrayal if the PCs accept that church's deal. If they reject it, then the cultists are a natural fit because they have taken offense, AND it will make the cultist event in the city that much better.

Good inspiration, here! Thanks for the suggestions!